Somewhere Between What Was, and What Could Be
by Sombereyes
Summary: Her skin was darker, and her eyes were blue instead of green. In spite of that, they cried the same tears, and felt the same things, lost in a limbo. The only difference was, Korra was young enough to fix her mistakes. Lin would make sure of that.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Let's see how long it takes before you are all chasing me down with pitchforks. Hopefully, not at all, but I can never tell…I have such a way with fandoms. This will be a two-shot story.

Summary: Her skin was darker, and her eyes were blue. In spite of that, they cried the same tears, and felt the same things, lost in a limbo. The only difference was, Korra was young enough to fix her mistakes. Lin would make sure of that.

 **Between What Was, and What Could Be  
Part 1  
**

The spirits liked to make racket just as the sun was sinking behind the clouds. In the evening time, they came out from their homes in the vines, chirping along street corners, and playing along rooftops. They would skitter along the vines, and perch in the windows of anyone who might let them, begging cutely for food or attention. The children of Republic City took to the spirits with glee, while the adults shooed them away as if they were vermin.

Lin usually kept her window closed, but from the corner of her eye she could tell that it had been left open. Two little cat looking things perching upon her table, and a few other four legged creatures pattered around on the kitchen floor. When a small rabbit spirit peeped into the room, she glared murderous daggers into it, sending the small creature squeaking and fleeing away in fright.

She cursed to herself, tipping back the whiskey in her glass.

The taste was lackluster, the radio blared a dull pro-bending match that she wasn't even paying attention to. In front of her rested a small stack of work that she just didn't care about. Another day of keeping busy had waned into yet another cold night in Republic City. Maybe that was for the best. No news seemed to be good news. She wasn't out dealing with another calamity, relative peace had been established once more. It should be enjoyed.

To some extent, she did enjoy it.

Lin was a prideful sort of person – a Beifong trait.

Still, as accomplished as she was, even she had a few bad habits. Holding onto regret came at the top of her list. In times when she couldn't concentrate, her mind drifted to younger days. Days when she was closer to her family, and her friends. Days when at the drop of a hat she would find herself caught up in a whirlwind of questionable choices, and poor excuses for her failures.

As grim as those days were at times, they were the best of her life.

They were the days filled with the bickering of family, and a sense of love. Her bed was warm at night back then, and even though she never admitted it, she always thought she'd get married to Tenzin. She could have never settled for being a mere housewife though. That dream fizzled out ingloriously. Right along with the small hope that her sister would join the police academy, and that one day, they'd both be able to meet their fathers.

Dreams were like that...impossible, that's why they were dreams, and not futures.

Even though she had finally put back those old pieces of a broken past, it still left her longing for something. Anything at all, so that she could reach out for those old days once more. So that she could foolishly return to her youthful days.

"Dishes are done." A young woman called from inside of the small kitchen.

"Go home, Avatar…" Lin grumbled, dragged away from her thoughts. What if she had actually married Tenzin, and gave him many offspring? The mere idea put her in an even worse mood. "And close the window, those little _creatures_ from the wilds are getting in."

"But why? You said I could crash here." Korra fired back as she sat down on the floor, crossing her legs. The spirits gathered around her. I wasn't an uncommon sight, but it still made Lin cringe. "I've been doing the chores too, so, can't I stay?"

"I said I would give you a place to stay while you patched things up with Asami." Lin told the dark skinned girl. "I never said you could move in permanently."

"Yeah, well by the looks of it, that's not happening." Korra said, visibly defeated. "I just don't get it."

Lin sighed, shooing away one of the little spirits that saw fit to sit on her paperwork. "What, exactly, don't you get?"

"Asami." Korra curled up into a tiny ball. "She's so…hard to understand now. It wasn't like this when we were in the spirit world."

"But it is now?" Lin asked quietly, a harsh edge in her voice.

Korra sighed. "Yeah…"

"Care to tell me what happened?" Lin asked as she leaned forward, elbows on her knees.

"Nothing happened." Korra groused, her teeth biting into her words as her throat clenched up tightly.

A bold faced lie at best. Lin knew without question, but said nothing to it. Korra was trying not to cry, but her emotions teetered on that sharp edge. Sadness and rage mingling.

Ignorance was the better part of valor, in this case. "People grow up, and they grow a part." Lin shrugged, downing the rest of the liquid in her glass. Resting her elbow on the back of the settee, she gave Korra an apprising look. "You still haven't talked to Tenzin yet, have you?"

"Why would I?" Korra shook her head. "All he's going to do is lecture me."

"That old goat just likes his traditions, that's all. It has nothing to do with you, kid." It was late, and while she wasn't happy to share her space with someone as boisterous as Korra, even she had to admit she pitied the girl. "Get some sleep." She sighed while picking herself up off of couch. "Tomorrow's a new day."

…

It started a few weeks ago, after a trip to the spirit world ended and life returned to normal. Asami was a goal driven woman, and Korra, she was still stuck in the same old routine. Lin couldn't blame the girl. Everyone got stuck in a rut sometimes, even the avatar. Being stuck in the same place though, sometimes meant being left behind, as Lin knew all too well. It was the price you paid for keeping a chip on your shoulder, and Korra always seemed to have a problem with somebody about something.

She wasn't surprised to find out that all of Korra's usual problems waited for the girl upon her return. It didn't help that Asami had her own personal interests that took up most of her time. What seemed like a budding relationship soon ended between the two women. Now they weren't even speaking to each other. Tenzin, for all of the heart the man could have, found himself dumbfounded by Korra's actions.

She shunned herself away in Lin's apartment, and hadn't been to Air Temple Island in those long fourteen days. The children were worried, the adults were uneasy, and team avatar sat at a low boil. The slightest thing could cause a rift between all of them. So, Tenzin was lost, and when he had no one else to turn to, he looked to Lin.

"I just don't know what to do." He proclaimed as he made a nuisance of himself. "She won't answer my calls, or anyone's for that matter."

"Would you even know what to say to her if you did happen to reach her?" Lin asked none too nicely, aggravated for having her workday disturbed.

"Well...I..." He quieted himself as he realized no word came easily to him. "I would think of something."

He never assumed that Korra might be a lesbian, and even though that didn't exactly bother him, he was out of his element. The mere thought left him speechless, and his babble went unheard and unheeded. It became clear even to Lin that he wanted to help blindly. No person with a broken heart would want to hear that. The aging woman knew how unhelpful his words could be first hand, she'd experienced them herself once upon a time.

"Not good enough, Tenzin." With that, her eyes returned to her paperwork. "If you want to help Korra, you'll do so by keeping quiet. Air bender ideology isn't going to help her right now." No... it would require the rock solid foundation of earth bending, but she wasn't about to tell Tenzin that. It wouldn't mollify him in the slightest. "I'll make sure no one kidnaps her, don't worry."

In truth, she liked seeing him squirm a little bit. Stuck under the pressure of his own training for a bit. That's why she tolerated that Korra had seemed to have taken residence in her living room, even while everyone else tip-toed around the facts.

"She belongs on the island." Tenzin blustered, knowing he was inside of the safety of Lin's office. "I really think some time to meditate and focused training could help her right now." Pacing around the area rug like it was some kind of racetrack, he frowned deeply with every step. "She should immerse herself into rigorous study."

"Now that's rich. Say that to her and you'll go flying out the nearest window." Lin told him, not particularly surprised that he'd come to that conclusion, wrong as it might have been. "Your funeral though, if you want to go sticking your nose into it."

"You're the last person I thought I'd hear that from. She's staying at your apartment." Tenzin pressed as his hand came up to run his fingers along his beard. "You tell me then, how is Korra doing?"

"I don't know." She told him, getting the feeling that tossing him out on his ass might actually be a good idea. "I don't ask. It's not my problem."

"Lin…"

Setting down her pen, she rested her cheek in her palm. "My best guess, she wants to be left alone."

Tenzin wasn't happy to hear that. "I haven't seen her this depressed since she was stuck brooding in that wheelchair. She pushed us away then too, and if I didn't know any better I…" He cut himself off and shook his head, he didn't want to think about it.

"I doubt she'll go sneaking away from Republic City." Lin told him. Seeing his distressed did nothing for the headache starting to form. "The subject is sensitive, not to mention entirely out of her league."

"I beg your pardon?" His confusion was painfully evident.

"Think about it rationally." Lin told him, her fingers drumming upon her desk. "The girl hardly had a childhood, let alone the chance to be an average teenager. Now she's in her twenties experiencing heartbreak, and you expect her to bounce back like she was punched in the jaw." Lin shook her head at his naiveté. "We both know it doesn't work that way."

"She's the avatar." Tenzin refuted, imploring the obvious. "She isn't average, and she never will be. We need her, and I'd feel better about this whole fiasco if she put the matter behind her soon. I hate seeing her like this."

"No more than she hates feeling the way she does." Lin shrugged. "Listen, all I'm saying is that her life experience with these kinds of things have been squished down and condensed. Now that she's a young woman, you can hardly blame her."

"During times of strife, it's imperative that one such as Korra surrounds herself with others. That's the only way she'll learn to overcome adversity." The bald man stated without missing a beat. "I'm positive that with a little time, and plenty of training, she'll get over this."

"Personal opinion, don't play with fire." With that she lifted herself from her chair, and turned herself so that she could look out over Republic City. "I agree that something needs to be done, if only so that she stops freeloading in my apartment. That being said, I don't think you're capable of being any sort of support."

"Alright, then what would you suggest?" He asked, slumping down in a chair, giving the chief of police a discerning eye.

"I don't know, but I will think of something." She told him. "You can be sure of that."

….

Asami had been spending her two weeks very differently.

The cell door slammed behind her, and with it, a sense of foreboding entered the deep recesses of her heart. It was not the first time she'd been to this maximum security prison, and it would not be the last. Still, there was a coldness in her bones that she couldn't shake, memories that with every blink echoed in the back of her mind.

Her father's image, his words…ultimately, his regret and repentance.

She pushed away from the cell door, reminding herself that thinking about the dead didn't do her any good. Not when life moved on steadily, expecting her to move along with it. Others needed her, and, she needed them. To cope, to breathe, and to figure out what where exactly her place was in this convoluted life of hers. For all of her intellect, her faith had been shattered.

Fractured into tiny pieces, dust in the wake of every breath.

She ran her fingers through her hair, and made sure her shirt wasn't askew. Gathering her cloak she wrapped it tightly around herself. Fixing the lipstick that she smudged around her lips, she was just going through the motions.

If anyone asked…she wouldn't speak of it.

There was nothing more to say, really.

She visited Kuvira, would continue to do so, and if that fact somehow made her a lesser person, then that was someone else's problem. Not hers. She wouldn't carry the burden, not when she had so many of her own to carry by choice, and responsibility.

Republic City needed her, and she needed the distraction. Kuvira provided what Korra couldn't. That's all there was to it.

…

Lin felt compelled by this whole terrible situation. She would do a little digging and put the pieces together herself.

She knew a little something about dealing with heartbreak. She knew even more about cursing the very ground she stood on, as it reminded her of all of the little things she'd done wrong over the years. She was used to losing her temper, and biting back angry retorts. She was even more used to swallowing down emotion into the pit of her gut. Leaving it to fester until the words that flew out of her mouth were angry retorts. Mindless, hateful words, spewed in the heat of the moment.

…and she remembered what it was like to be young, and in love. How much she would have rather gotten kicked in the teeth, than lose to a woman like Pema.

Korra didn't want to talk about her problems? Fine, she didn't have too. Lin was the chief of police, she'd just have to investigate tactfully. Her training told her to start at square one; the cause of Korra's sadness.

Asami Saito.

She gave some thought to the beautiful and talented woman. She was a genius, a master of revolutionary vision. As most would call her, easy on the eyes. Her wealth and intellect only added to all of the good things about the woman. Giving more thought to the subject, she realized Asami frequented the maximum security prison. Lin ran into Asami almost every visiting day, thinking little of it at first.

Asami had visited her father often enough after she made amends with the man, and so seeing her in the prison was a common thing.

Asami's father was dead, it couldn't have been him. It never occurred to Lin to inquire who Asami was visiting, but a glance at the visitation log quickly changed that. Lin soon came to realize just who the woman took the time to visit, and the truth of the matter came as a shock.

"Kuvira!?" Lin barked as she slapped down a visitation list in front of Mako's nose. "What on earth is the meaning of this?"

The man took the paper in hand and shrugged. "We allow conjugal visits to those who are sentenced to life without parole. Look, I know you don't like her. I don't either, but Kuvira is entitled to her rights, same as everyone else."

"That's not what I'm asking." Lin pressed, her fingers coming up to the bridge of her nose out of frustration. Green eyes slid behind closed lids. "Why is Asami visiting a convict for _that_ kind of thing?"

"I don't know, Chief." Mako sighed, his gloved hands coming to rest behind his head. "It's not exactly my business what Asami does in her spare time, or with who. I don't feel right asking." He had to admit, he felt bad for Korra though. "It's been happening for a while now. Since it's not against the law, there's nothing I can really do anyway."

"Damn it all." Lin growled under her breath. Strangely, she expected worse. Suddenly a lot of things that Lin didn't want to put together made a lot of sense. "How long has this been going on?"

"Dunno," he shrugged, "Korra found out about it though…that's why they broke up. I'm trying to keep my distance, I don't want either one of them to think I'm playing favorites. Besides, I really don't have much room to talk."

"You knew?" Lin felt an inexplicable rage bubbling from the pit of her gut. "You knew, and said nothing?"

Guilty, Mako shook his head. "How do you think Korra found out?" He got up and stormed across the room cup in hand to pour himself something to drink. "I told her, she blew fuse, and well...you get the picture."

"I thought Asami knew better than that." Lin sighed, suddenly feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders. "Bedding a common criminal, it's disgusting. You should have intervened, told her not to go wasting her time with that filth."

"I don't condone it." Mako rebuked with a sigh. "I just don't know what to say about it. Asami seems happy, and as long as she is, who am I to judge?"

"What about Korra?" Lin asked.

"She'll…bounce back." Mako said slowly, sounding like he didn't fully believe himself as he said it. "She always does."

…

Monday, Wednesday, Friday...for three hours each of those days...love bloomed in the dank prison cell.

In a room that was not unlike a fortress, two women rested tangled up in the arms of one another. The grey sheets were rough against their skin, and the room itself was sparse, featuring only a toilet in the corner and a sink to go with it. Everything in the room lacked metal, and even the fixtures themselves were made of wood. Asami thought that it was in poor taste to leave a living space in such a state, where even the walls were an ugly emotionless tone.

An alarm rang out. Their time together was over for today. With a soft empty sigh, Asami lifted herself from the too small cot that she'd occupied for the past few hours.

"You'll be coming back on Wednesday?" The incarcerated metal bender asked, propping her head in the palm of her hand.

"So long as you behave." Asami told her, a small smile playing on her lips as she searched for her dress and panties that had been discarded long before. "I can't visit if you keep making trouble for the guards. Especially Mako, stop torturing the poor man would you? He's just doing his job."

"I have to get my fun around here somehow." Kuvira sighed, her eyes trailing up those long legs that had been tangled up with hers not moments ago, already missing the contact. "It's so dull around here, and they won't even let me out of my cell to roam in the common areas."

"There's metal in the common areas." Asami said with soft understanding. "You know, if you show that you've been on your best behavior, in a few years you may be allowed to keep a few items in the room. When that happens, I'll come in and decorate, make this feel more like home."

"I don't see the point in that." Kuvira said, as she stretched, her breast slipping out from under the covers. "We have better things to be doing during our three hours." To think of those hands roaming over her again did her mind good, and made the long nights of solitude a little more bearable. "Besides, a person like me doesn't get second chances. You're too faithful in the way the government works."

Asami sighed. "Justice is justice, that's just the way it goes." Once she was dressed, she sat back down on the edge of the bed. "I still think everyone should have a second chance, and that means you too. Maybe the legal system won't see it that way, but I do, and that's why I'm here."

"Because you pity me?" Kuvira laughed. "Save it for someone else."

"Why did you do it?" Asami murmured then. "Did you really think you could unite the world?"

"I had the money and military backing to give it a shot." Kuvira said as she sat up, knowing that sooner or later someone was going to open the cell do. She didn't want to be naked when they did. "If I had the power in my hands to do it, why not give it a go? The way I see it, I was no different than the other world leaders, some of them stoop pretty low. Lower than I ever did at least…why the sudden interest?"

"I've always been interested. World affairs are tricky little things." Asami told her then as the alarm went off once more. "I think your methods were misguided, but, I don't think you were wrong. The world should be unified. I just think that's more likely to happen because of our differences, not our similarities. A singular authority would never work. It was all doomed to fail from the start."

"You could be right about that." Kuvira shrugged with a dangerous little smirk. "Doesn't change the fact that I made it as far as I did in my plans. Goes to show you that no one is prepared for a hostile takeover. So what if it isn't me? Someone else will try to do what I did soon enough, and maybe they will succeed. My being locked up in here won't mean very much then."

By the time the guard opened the door, Kuvira was dressed in her prison garb once more. They shared one final kiss, a promise for later, and Asami wordlessly exited the cell that kept the tyrannical leader safely locked away.

She might have been dangerous, but Asami could hear the truth in her words, harsh as they were.

…

Lin knew that Korra couldn't keep going on like this. It was self destructive. Someone had to talk to the girl. Preferably, in a way that was unmitigated and brutally honest. Lin decided she would be the one to do it, but that didn't make it any easier on her. Some things just hurt, and, this situation was one of them.

Pain was inevitable.

Two glasses of whiskey in hand, she pushed the avatar's legs out of her way so that she had a place to sit. She settled herself in the space she made. "I couldn't give Tenzin what he needed, and that's just how it is." Lin said definitively, completely sure of that. "You can't give Asami what she needs right now. You may just have to swallow that fact that you might never be able to." Lin took a long, slow sip of her cooling drink.

"I don't want to think about it." Korra said from under her breath.

Lin heard it anyway, between the vexed sigh and the bitterness. She could feel the slow beating of Korra's heart, the tiredness, and she shrugged. "I didn't either, it doesn't change reality." She slid the drink she made for Korra closer to the girl. "Come on, drink. It'll make you feel better."

"I'm not so sure about that." Korra said as she sat up and took the drink in hand. A ball of ice sat squarely in the center. She'd never had booze unmixed before.

"It's the talking that helps." Lin said then, sipping on the beverage once more, and then refilling her glass with the bottle on the table. "Talking and drinking, they go hand in hand if you ask me."

Korra took a sniff of the strong liquid before tipping the glass to her lips, the taste was woodsy, and she wasn't sure she liked it. "Uh, yuck." She spluttered, coughing as her throat burned. "Why would anyone drink this stuff?"

Lin just raised an eyebrow, a small bit of humor laced there. "Keep drinking it, you'll find out."

"No..." Korra said as she put the glass down.

"Then talk, kid." Lin shrugged. "Either way, we deal with this tonight."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: This chapter concludes the two-shot fiction. Now that I've gotten my feet wet with the fandom, I may return later with something else, but either way, I'd call this a good practice. I do know there are some aspects of this that I would like to bring out in a story of it's own one day, but weather or not I do remains to be seen.

Until next time everyone, and I hope you enjoy.

 **Between What Was, and What Could Be**

 **Part 2**

Talk?

About what?

How could she put it into words?

"There's nothing to say, Lin." Korra reached for that glass of booze again, tipped it up, and scowled at the taste. It was horrible, and she still didn't understand why a person might put it in their mouth, let alone swallow it. It burned, and she was sure it would make her breath reek.

"There's plenty to say." Lin told the girl wisely, a bite in her tone. "It just depends on if you want to or not."

"Well, not according to Asami." Korra shot back, setting the glass down harder than she meant to. Thankfully it was empty. "She says there's nothing to talk about, and you know what, maybe she's right! Maybe…there is nothing to say at this point. What's done is done, and she can't take it back, so why bother?"

"Do you love her?" A blunt question offered up by a blunter woman.

"What?" A question laced with denial.

"You heard me, kid." forest green eyes found icy blue. Korra averted her gaze first, saying nothing, crumbling under that hard stare. Lin didn't ease up, she pressed harder, maintained her edge. Her years of interrogation served Lin well. "You can sit there and pretend you didn't. Doesn't change the answer one way or the other. You either do, or you don't. There isn't any in-between."

Korra seemed to digest this, posing a question of her own. "If I said I did, what does it even matter?"

"You don't forget." Lin, in a rare show of concern, gentled her voice only slightly. "It doesn't go away just because you want it to. Like it or not, Asami is part of you now. The bond you two share will always be there. In some way or another, you'll always have to deal with each other. The question falls to you. Are you going to make everyone else suffer for it? Are other people going to have to pay for her sins, just because you were hurt?"

"I'd never do that." Korra said, now angry at the accusation. "I'm not that kind of person."

"You could be!" Lin shouted, standing as the avatar did the same. "You punish people every day, and you don't even realize that you do it. I see you, I see myself. Tenzin worries about you, Mako too…Republic City depends on you. You have no idea what your pain does to others, because you're so caught up in your own anguish that you don't see it." Lin shook her head. "It hurts. Trust me, I get it…but it's not the end of the world."

"I know Lin!" Korra grabbed at black metal armor. "But…I wish it was." Her forehead falling to a cold metallic shoulder plate did nothing to hide her vexation. "If it was the end of the world, I'd never have to feel this kind of pain again."

Lin hadn't expected this. Well, now what did she do? She couldn't very well fling the Avatar off of her. That would just make matters worse. She awkwardly grabbed at Korra's arms, forcing the girl to part from her. There was anger in those blue eyes, sure. Frustration too, but there was something else as well. Something weak and fragile, able to be shattered in an instant...

...if the right person came along to land the finishing blow.

Lin bit the inside of her cheek, annoyed at herself for letting things get this far. Her job, along with many others, was to protect the young woman. Yet, did that protection extend to her very soul as well? Was she responsible in part, for not seeing the truth long before?

"Yeah, well you're not the first one to feel that way. You won't be the last." Lin sighed at great length, stepping away from Korra, turning her back to those searching blue eyes. Lost…afraid…alone. "I felt the same way, when Tenzin and Pema started dating." She knew what she had to explain, she just didn't know how to say it. "I hated Pema, what she represented in his life."

"How did you get over it?" Korra wanted to just crumple up her feelings and throw them away, be rid of this terrible confusion forever…never having to deal with any of it ever again. "You have to tell me how to do it."

Lin wasn't sure how she dealt with it, if she were completely honest. Every day, things got a little easier, but had she truly coped? Probably not, not the way she should have. "Well, when Pema married him, I thought I was over it. Then their first born came along. I realized just how much I'd lost." She couldn't let Korra do the same thing, taking for granted everyone, and everything around her. "Having a normal family, the ideal of that meant the world to me. Seeing Tenzin become a father solidified for me that I was not capable of being such a person."

"Huh?" Korra murmured. "I don't understand..."

"I never would have been able to live up to his needs," Lin said simply, "he couldn't live up to mine either." She turned back to Korra then, resolve in her green eyes, long ago pain raising to the surface. "Love by itself, is not enough. It will never be enough. There's more to it than that."

"Then what the hell is it?" Korra asked collapsing back on the sofa.

"For you two, it was a very good start. That's all it could ever be." Lin murmured, kneeling in front of her, making sure her green eyes held those of blue. "It isn't a cure, it's not some magical end-all be-all. It's a reason people use, some as a strength, others a crutch. That's all the word really is. It's the actions you choose to make that really count."

"You make it sound so easy." Korra felt as if she'd missed a step somewhere. Like she was still that clueless seventeen year old that had just stepped off the boat into Republic City and knew nothing about it.

"Thing is, Korra, it's never going to be easy. It's going to hurt like hell, but you have to decide if that's worth it." Lin didn't let Korra avert her gaze or recoil into herself. Not again. She would hold that blue eyed stare, and watch those tears make rivers that spilled and became like rain. "If it is, any amount of hurt can be overcome. If it's not worth it, then why are you still crying over her?"

…

Lin hoped she hadn't been too hard on the girl. She was only in her twenties, and she didn't exactly have a lot of world experience. Even so, Lin was a Beifong, raised with the same discipline in her bending that her mother employed. If her family were known for one thing, it was rock solid, iron clad certainty. It might have been pig-headedness more often than not. Other times, it might have been downright idiocy that drove them. Yet no matter what it was, a Beifong was absolute in all things, no matter what.

Those extremes often got Lin into trouble, especially when she was young.

She loved Tenzin. That was also absolute. She would never stop loving the man. It was no longer romantic, she no longer hated Pema, and she cared a great deal for his family…thought of them as an extension of her own…it was still love. It didn't matter how she contorted the ideal, or the meaning. Tenzin's place in her life was significant. It warranted merit. In spite of the tension that they sometimes found between them, or, maybe even because of it, she knew she could go on living her life contented.

Maybe not as happy as she could have been, if she'd been less foolish in her younger years…yet contentment itself was worthy enough.

Lin was sure that if Korra could find that same balance with Asami, everything would be okay. Maybe they wouldn't be lovers that shared a bed…but maybe…just maybe…if they were lucky, and tried real hard, that love could change form. It could exist as something else, equally as important, and just as meaningful. It would take effort though, from both Korra and Asami.

Lin went to work that day with the full intention of sorting out her office, but Tenzin came around again, pacing along the area rug. To the left, to the right, and then to the left again. Over and over. There was only so much she could take. "Tenzin, if you're trying to tunnel your way into the sewers, I'll make the trip more expedient."

The well intentioned threat got his attention, and he paused. "You…uh…" Suddenly, his mouth felt very dry, his tongue like sand along the roof of his mouth. "You spoke with Korra I presume?"

"I did." Lin confirmed, a stoic expression along her features.

"And, what did she say?" Tenzin asked, his voice hopeful. "Will she return to the island?"

"I don't intend to speak to her about that, Tenzin." Lin could feel his ire, the soft swirling of the air around him. "As I told you before, this isn't something you can help her deal with."

He rubbed his hands together, eyes closed to hide his anxiety. "Ah…but, you did talk to her at length?"

She lifted two fingers to her temple, rubbing in small circles. He was going to drive her crazy at this rate, much like his son also tested her sanity on any given day. Like father, like son…she was well aware of where the boy got his temperament. She lifted her eyes to his, a cruelty in her smirk. "We talked about Korra's sex-life, or lack thereof, if you absolutely must know."

"I thought the dispute was about Asami…" Tenzin bristled, hands raised in his confusion. She said nothing, and let the silence speak for her. Eventually it did, and he grimaced. Once he got the idea, he timidly hid his face in his hands. "Spirits have mercy…"

"What did you think the two of them were doing in the spirit world on their vacation?" Lin asked him, taking his pinched expression in stride. "Surely, you knew they were dating. You should know what that includes."

"Never mind what I thought…" Tenzin sighed, regretting that he even opened his mouth to speak.

"Glorious shade of red, Tenzin, it suits you." She started laughing when his blush grew an even deeper shade.

"Lin!" Now he was starting to feel his own headache coming on. "Now is not the time."

He was right of course. It really wasn't a laughing matter down in the heart of it all. She felt bad for him, because she knew he wanted to be of help. Unfortunately for Tenzin, his greatest feat in all of this would be to shut up, and wordlessly offer his support from far away.

…

Korra had to accept that Lin posed a very real, and darn good question...

Why cry over Asami? Was it even worth the effort, pain, and sorrow? There was only one way to find out. Korra would have to be the one to reach out and talk to her. Asami was guarded though, and distant. Korra wasn't sure what sort of gaze would meet her own when she knocked on the door to Asami's home. She was even less sure of what she would say to the woman.

It came as no surprise that her tongue worked faster than her brain. Upset thoughts formed questions that found the air before Korra could stop them.

"Why did you do it?" Korra asked frantically.

Why indeed…

"I've always been right here, right?" The mighty avatar reduced to such a bedraggled and unwholesome sate. Had she even slept at all? What about eating, had she been getting enough nourishment? She didn't look it. "Asami…you have to know that I'd do anything for you."

The black haired woman said nothing to this. Korra's words were arguable, but more or less true…

"You could have come to me with anything." Was it an appeal, or a protest? It seemed like Korra didn't even know the answer herself anymore. "You didn't have to run to Kuvira…"

It was here that Asami hissed, taking in a sharp breath. On the contrary. She did have to, and she did, running headlong into the arms of the villain. It was terrible she knew, but she'd gone and done it anyway. What was Korra's goal in all of this? Weren't her blue eyes tired of putting up that brave front? Asami felt cold. She felt angry. Most of all, she felt alone. "Are you finished, Korra?"

"No!" The dark skinned girl shouted, before quieting once more "No...but, it seems like you are. Like you just gave up on me."

Maybe…she was giving up...but it wasn't on Korra. It was more complicated than that. Asami licked her luscious lips, stalling for even a brief moment. "I am my father's daughter. I always made the statement that I wasn't, but…" Asami swallowed hard, no excuses, just reasons. Her reasons, and no one else's. "Blood is thicker than water, and memories aren't so easy to throw away. Trust me. I've tried, you can't lock them away."

"You're not going to elaborate on that, are you?" Korra knew the finality there, in the words, and that heated gaze. She could feel it woven between each breath.

"Even if I did, would it heal anything?" Asami asked. She knew what she did. It was unforgiveable. More than just a wayward kiss in the heat of the moment. She slept with another woman, knowing fully and entirely that Korra loved her. "The damage is already done, and nothing I say could even possibly fix you…if anything, I'd probably just hurt you more. For what little it may be worth, I don't want to do that."

Korra couldn't fathom it. "Friends don't do what we did in the spirit world. Friends don't talk the way we did, or kiss the way we did...or...or..."

"Or make love the way we did." Asami finished, since Korra seemed to have trouble with the phrase. "It was easy doing that in the spirit world, away from everything else. Just you and me. Yeah, that could have gone on forever, but that's not reality. This…this is reality. Our homes, our jobs, our responsibilities…those are the things we came back to."

"I thought we'd come back to face them together." Korra shot back.

"I will never stop being part of team avatar. You need me, I'll be right there with you. Just like Mako and Bolin." Asami said as she finally took the first step out of her door. "I still believe your way is the right way. I haven't lost faith in that, or in you. Deep down though, I need more than that. You can't put to rest all of my demons."

"I can damn well try..." Korra protested. One tiny little strand of hope, that's all she really wanted. Something to cling onto, to make her think she stood a chance.

"No. Korra, I have to do it on my own. I don't expect you to ever understand. I don't even ask you to forgive me."

"Then…" Korra shook her head. "What do I do now?"

"I don't know." Asami said softly, her words as gentle as could be as she reached out to put a hand on Korra's cheek. "You need to decide that for yourself."

...

At first the words hurt more than Korra expected. Rejection wasn't something she ever took well. It hurt even more when Asami's kindness mixed with her cruelty. Friendship - Korra loathed the word. It was such a lonely one at the end of the day, when the sun went down and the blankets weren't nearly warm enough. She didn't want to go back to the air temple. She couldn't sleep on Lin's sofa the rest of her life.

Korra had felt numb for too long.

Decide for herself what path to take? Why would she do that? How would she do that?

It had always been decided for her. By teachers, by the public, by enemies, and by people who called themselves friends. Her path was never in her own hands, had never been, unless she defied everyone and everything around her. There was only one person she could think of that could truly help her now. The problem was that person was too far away. It was time for another journey. Everyone would think she was crazy, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

She wasn't running away like last time…

She just wasn't as strong as she needed to be right now. She needed to get stronger, she needed wisdom...she needed time.

Time...

"I wish you would reconsider." Tenzin almost begged as he watched the girl pack a bag. She had just stepped foot into the air temple, and what had once been a smile upon his face turned once again to concern. "Please, Korra, consider staying in Republic City. It needs you, the people have always looked to you for guidance and that won't ever change."

"Republic City doesn't need me." Korra told him, and with a breath she went back to stuffing her shirts into the center of the back pack. "One day, it just might. Right now, I'm just pretty window dressing and a seat next to you in the stuffy old court house. They don't need me for that stuff."

"Korra, are you ready?" Lin asked, out of uniform, and draped in earth kingdom attire.

"As ready as I'll ever be." She said as she zipped up the backpack.

"I can't believe you're going to allow this." Tenzin ranted, giving Lin an aggravated look. "And what about your position!"

"Training the avatar comes first, Tenzin, we agreed on this." Lin sighed, in truth, she wasn't altogether amused about Korra's destination either, but someone had to accompany her. "Korra's metal bending isn't up to snuff. Mako and several others in my unit can easily be the chief of police. We only have one avatar, and I'm not about to let her go roaming in the wilderness alone."

"This isn't what I had in mind when I meant focused training." Tenzin nagged as he followed the women out of Korra's room and down the hall. "Lin, surely you could train her here, couldn't you?"

"I could." Lin shrugged. "But it's not just training from me that she wants."

…

Korra and Kuvira weren't so different at face value.

They both instilled change, and forced truths upon the world that many would find difficult to swallow. They swayed reality, and commanded authority. As public figures, though they stood on two very opposite extremes, they were entirely unified by their ultimate goal. To bring the greater world together.

It was as lovers that they were so different.

Korra was a powerhouse of strength. Her body was rock solid, her hardheadedness even more so. Korra loved fiercely, and yet, naively. Her blue eyes like ice, were like a waterfall of emotion. Though occasionally wise, she was also very young. Her words often times not her own. Rather, they were teachings instilled into her, and she was such a person even in romance. Though her kiss was as passionate as any storm, her emotions were too far away to reach.

Korra, for all that she loved, and she did very deeply - her soul could still never reach Asami.

Kuvira's soul could, and it had.

Kuvira was a paragon of sin. Of love and loss, of sacrifice and hardship. A firm hand of power, and a dark horse of remorse and vengeance. Kuvira knew only how to bend and break, to manipulate and own whatever she deemed hers. She might have made terrible errors, but she was honest in her cruelty, trustworthy in the abuse of her standing. Her kiss was like venom, her touch burned like a quietly molten rage that bubbled deep within the pit of hell itself.

And why shouldn't it?

Kuvira had regrets too. Regrets that could not, would not, ever be forgiven.

If Asami could redeem this woman, make her open her eyes and see truth in the otherwise terrible acts, then maybe all hope was not lost. Maybe good people did the worst things, for all of the right reasons. Asami had to believe as she tangled in the sheets, that laying with this sinner was not a misdeed. It was not a mistake, but rather, it was a saving grace.

An apology for all of the things Asami could not fix, could never repair, or take back..and, maybe, the angry red scratches down her back, were like that of angelic wings. Gifting her flight for those sparse few moments when reason left her.

Even if all of that was mere conjecture and little more, Asami knew what gave her peace of mind. It wasn't Korra's embrace, it was Kuvira's viper-like kiss.

"You are from the spirit world." Kuvira breathed, sweat beading across her forehead as she fought to catch her breath. "Of that, I am sure."

"You wish that I was." Asami said softly, her fingers still tangled in Kuvira's black tresses.

"I do. Indeed." The convict told her, her faith in that desire unwavering. "You free me from my bindings, as if it were so. That to me is good enough. You were exquisite as always, my dearest Asami." Kuvira was warm, and so much softer than Korra could ever be, in spite of the sharpness of Kuvira's tongue. One that was as skilled with each kiss as it was with spoken promises of destruction. There was no doubt, even in this moment, that her words were meant to drive home one pinpoint accurate detail. "You are mine, are you not?"

"I am." Asami murmured, drawn into another passionate kiss that spoke promises meant to be kept, but might easily be broken. "I choose to be."

"I wish you to be." Kuvira murmured, nipping at the nape of Asami's neck, releasing a possessive growl light and airy. "So, you are." A kiss on that bite mark. "Mine." Another kiss, and a tiny lick. "Only mine."

"Even now, you believe yourself powerful enough to own the world?" Asami asked her, lifting one slender leg to tunnel between Kuvira's own. "To own me, without my desire to give myself freely? You've learned nothing if that's the case." Still, she kissed Kuvira once more, feeling those soft yet chapped lips pressing into her own with desire that would never be tamed so easily. "I want you to find some measure of solace and acceptance from what you've done."

"You're not that selfless, girl." Kuvira laughed, though she had to admit, it was fun hearing such bold declarations. "For your sake though, we can pretend you are. If, that's what you really want."

Asami sat up, her back stinging her from the marks upon her skin. The bites on her shoulders were also calling her attention, and it was so good…too good...too much like the heaven she would never go to. Soon, their time would be up once again. She cursed that fact, as she began to get dressed.

"True, I'm no saint. I'm not that full of myself, either." Asami said, sure of that. "When I was a little girl, my father taught me how to play Pai-Sho. He would tell me it's more than just a game, and at the time, I didn't believe him." She flicked her burning gaze over her shoulder. "Now, I'm sure it's a way of life. I know I can put my bets on you. I'm too good of a player to lose."

"Why?" Kuvira laughed. "Because I'm locked up?"

"We both want the same thing." Asami murmured, as the door buzzed, opening to let her out. "A damn good reason not to give up." The door slammed behind her. Another afternoon wasted away.

Another promise that she wouldn't ever leave the convict truly alone...

…

Korra knew there was one place she could go. One place that would leave her sore all over, and regretting every single fight. One place where the sprits and the world merged in harmony, and there was one woman who would run her so far into the ground she would sleep for a week if she could.

"No, no, no." Toph called from her place, seated in the vines well away from the battle below her. "Lin you're better than that. Don't let a measly little avatar like her show you up!" She then turned to Korra, her eyes unseeing, but her senses keen as ever. "And you, get up and go again! What do you think you're doing laying down on the job? Day's wasting away, and you're face down in a puddle."

"You know, I've gotten old." Lin said, trying to catch her breath. What round was it now, number four, number five? She couldn't recall.

"Old? Old!" Toph jumped down from her place, hands on her hips as her feet squashed deeply into the mud below. "My pruned behind you're old. Two against one, show me what you got."

Lin cringed and Korra smirked.

Blue eyes glinted with renewed fire as she lifted her body from the muck underfoot. "Hey Lin, how's it feel to be back in boot camp again?"

Lin, for her part already had her gaze aimed at her mother, ready to move out of the way at any time. "Ask me that after she flings us around."

"Stop jabbering, I haven't got all day." Toph called, while pulling a baby leach out from behind her ear. "Go!"

Korra surged forward, her questions dissolving into action. Would she ever be able to let go of Asami? She didn't really know. Flying through the air and hitting the ground below, she looked over to where Lin had crashed next to her. From the feel of it, they landed in a shallow mud pit. It was slippery, it was sticky, it reeked, and it clung onto each and every limb.

"Yep, the mud tastes exactly as I remember it." Korra shook herself off, flinging the brown gook everywhere.

"Get up, kid." Lin growled, spitting out the taste of putrid water. "We're not going to take this sitting down..."

Training...with Lin and Toph, two people who managed just fine, protecting the people they loved from afar. If she could turn out like them, even just a little bit, she'd be alright...

At least, she hoped so.


End file.
